In this article

SQL Server on Linux

In this article

Starting with SQL Server 2017, SQL Server runs on Linux. It's the same SQL Server database engine, with many similar features and services regardless of your operating system.

SQL Server 2019 preview runs on Linux. It's the same SQL Server database engine, with many similar features and services regardless of your operating system. To find out more about this release, see What's new in SQL Server 2019 preview for Linux.

Docker itself runs on multiple platforms, which means that you can run the Docker image on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Connect

After installation, connect to the SQL Server instance on your Linux machine. You can connect locally or remotely and with a variety of tools and drivers. The quickstarts demonstrate how to use the sqlcmd command-line tool. Other tools include the following:

Explore

SQL Server 2017 has the same underlying database engine on all supported platforms, including Linux. Therefore, many existing features and capabilities operate the same way on Linux. This area of the documentation exposes some of these features from a Linux perspective. It also calls out areas that have unique requirements on Linux.

SQL Server 2019 preview has the same underlying database engine on all supported platforms, including Linux. Therefore, many existing features and capabilities operate the same way on Linux. This area of the documentation exposes some of these features from a Linux perspective. It also calls out areas that have unique requirements on Linux.

SQL Server 2017 and SQL Server 2019 preview have the same underlying database engine on all supported platforms, including Linux. Therefore, many existing features and capabilities operate the same way on Linux. This area of the documentation exposes some of these features from a Linux perspective. It also calls out areas that have unique requirements on Linux.

If you are already familiar with SQL Server on Linux, review the release notes: